Author 




Title 



Imprint 



16—^1737 



EMPIRE or 




"What I say is, no man is good enough to govern an- 
other man without that man's consent." 

Abraham Lincoln. 

From Complete Works of Lincoln, 
Vol. I, page 195, 




" Those who deny freedom for 
others deserve it not themselves, 
and under a just God cannot long 
retain it." — Abraham Lincoln. 

Complete Works of Lincoln, 

Vol. I, p. 633. 



Mrs. Bdwin C, Dinwiddi©, 
Deo, 23, 1935 



Minneapolis: 
Hall, Black & Co., Printers. 
1900. 



THE IMPERIAL POLICY 

AND 

OUR PHILIPPINE COLONIES. 



(All capital and italics used in the quoted matter in this booklet, are 
the editor's.) 



" I have always thought that all men should be 
free, but if any should be slaves, it should be first those 
who desire it for themselves and secondly those who 
desire it for others." Abraham Lincoln. 

From an address to an Indiana Regiment, March 
17, 1865. Complete Works of Lincoln, Vol. IL, p. 662. 



The Philippine Archipelago contains a few large 
islands, (chief among which is Luzon,) and unnumbered 
small ones, with a population estimated to be eight 
millions or more, who may be grouped into two classes 
in considering their relations to the United States. 

A small portion, occupying what is called the Sulu 
Archipelago are Mahometans, and are thus described 
by Pres. Schurman of the Philippine Commission. 

"They are powerful, religious fanatics - 

who care nothing for death, and believe that 

the road to heaven can be attained by killing 
Christians. " * 

These are now at peace with the United States, the 
administration having made a treaty with them, where- 
by the United States government agrees to pay the 

3 



Sulu (or Moro) chiefs monthly stipends, to protect them 
against foreigners, and to guarantee them their domes- 
tic institutions, polygamy and slavery. 

The United States Constitution provides that the 
senate must ratify treaties, but the senate had nothing 
to do with this one, which reinstates slavery under our 
flag, in violation of the 13th amendment to the consti- 
tution. 

Much the larger part of the population of the 
Philippines are Christians of the Malay race. It is 
these people who had carried on the insurrections 
against Spain, and who, as allies, fought with our forces 
against her sovereignty in these islands. The follow- 
ing quotations will give a good idea of their condition 
and character when war was begun on them by the ad- 
ministration early in 1899. In the words of U. S. 
Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts: 

"They were fit for independence. They had 
churches, libraries, works of art and education. 
They were better educated than many American 
communities within the memory of some of us. 
They were eager and ambitious to learn. They 
were governing their entire island except Manila, 
in order and in quiet, with municipal govern- 
ments, courts of justice, schools, and a complete 
constitution resting upon the consent of the peo- 
ple. They are now as fit for self government 
as was Japan when she was welcomed into the 
family of nations/' — From letter of Hon. Geo. F 
Hoar, Springfield Republican, January II, 1900, 

Admiral Dewey wrote of them in his dispatch to 
the authorities at Washington,' June 27, 1898: 

" Aguinaldo has gone to attend a meeting of 
insurgent leaders, for the purpose of forming a 

4 



civil government ; " and in commendation added, 
"In my opinion, these people are far superior in 
their intelligence, and more capable of self-govern- 
ment than the natives of Cuba." 

The following tribute to the character of the Fili- 
pinos is taken from the report of the Philippine Com- 
mission. 

ENCOURAGING PROSPECTS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF 

THE PHILIPPINES. 

"The Commission, while not underrating the 
difficulty of governing the Philippines, is disposed 
to believe the task easier than is generally sup- 
posed. For this confidence - — - it has the 
following among other grounds : First. — The 
study by educated Filipinos of the various ex- 
amples of constitutional government, has resulted 
in their selection, as best adapted to the condi- 
tions and character of the various people inhabit- 
ing the archipelago, of almost precisely the 
political institutions and arrangements which have 
been worked out in practice by the American peo- 
ple ; and these are also, though less definitely 
apprehended, the political ideas of the masses of 
the Philippine people themselves. 

This point has been frequently illustrated in the 
course of the preceding exposition, and it must 
here suffice to say that the commission was con- 
stantly surprised by the harmony subsisting be- 
tween the rights, privileges, and institutions enjoyed 
by Americans, and the reforms desired by the best 
Filipinos. 

Secondly. — In addition to the adaptation of the 
American form of government to the Filipinos, 
the Filipinos themselves are of unusually promis- 
ing material. They possess admirable personal 
and domestic virtues ; and though they are uncon- 



5 



trollable when such elemental passions as jealousy, 
revenge, or resentment are once aroused, most of 
them, practically all of the civilized inhabitants of 
Luzon and the Visayas, are naturally and normally 
peaceful, docile, and deferential to constituted au- 
thority. On the suppression of the insurrection, 
the great majority of them will be found to be 
good, law-abiding citizens. Thirdly. — Though the 
majority of the inhabitants are uneducated, they 
evince a strong desire to be instructed, and the 
example of Japan is with them a cherished ideal 
of the value of education. A system of free 
schools for the people, another American institu- 
tion, it will be noted, has been an important ele- 
ment in every Philippine program of reforms. 
Fourthly. — The educated Filipinos, though con- 
stituting a minority, are far more numerous than is 
generally supposed, and are scattered all over the 
archipelago ; and the commission desires to bear 
the strongest testimony to the high range of their 
intelligence, and not only to their intellectual 
training, but also to their social refinement as well 
as to the grace and charm of their personal charac- 
ter. These educated Filipinos, in a word, are the 
equals of the men one meets in similar vocations — 
law, medicine, business, etc., — in Europe or 
America." — Report of Philippine Commission, 
pages 119 and 120. 

"The Filipinos to-day (always excepting the Sulu 
groups and parts of Mindanao), are a pure democ- 
racy without distinctions of birth or rank ; a mass 
of people without hereditary chieftains or rulers." 
— Same Report, page 101. 

The Philippine Islands were nominally under Span- 
ish rule for centuries, but insurrections were frequent, 
and United States Consul Williams, under date of Feb- 



6 



ruary 22, 1898, sent the following from Manila to the 
State Department at Washington. 

" Conditions here and in Cuba are practically 
alike. War exists ; battles are of almost daily oc- 
currence. The crown forces have been unable to 
dislodge a rebel army within ten miles of Manila. 
Insurgents are being armed and drilled, are rapidly 
increasing in numbers and efficiency, and all agree 
that a general uprising will come as soon as the 
Governor General embarks for Spain, which is fixed 
for March." — From Senate Document 62, pages 
319-320. 

This was the condition at Luzon at the time (May 
1898), when the fleet under Admiral Dewey entered 
Manila bay. Meanwhile negotiations were pending be- 
tween Admiral Dewey and the U. S. Consular repre- 
sentatives at Singapore, and Hongkong, on one hand, 
and General Aguinaldo, the most prominent Filipino 
leader. These resulted in the return of General Agui- 
naldo in a United States ship from Hongkong to 
Manila, and his organizing and arming additional 
forces of insurgent Filipinos, and establishing an inde- 
pendent Filipino government within Luzon and else- 
where in the Philippine islands. This was done with 
the concurrence and by the assistance of Admiral 
Dewey. The insurgent Filipinos completed a land 
investment of Manila, and captured large bodies of 
Spanish troops in other parts of the island, so that 
in fact when Manila was surrendered to Admiral 
Dewey, all the Philippines outside Manila, except 
the city of Iloilo, were then in possession of the 
Filipinos. 

Meanwhile the government established by the 

7 



Filipinos was discharging all its functions successfully 
and creditably, and the islands were orderly. 

Aguinaldo's military and civil services called forth 
full commendation from the United States naval and 
military commanders. Thus far, until nearly the date 
of the surrender of Manila, the situation was one of 
harmonious co-operation between the United States 
forces, naval and military, and the Filipinos. 

THE ADMINISTRATION AVOWS ITS PURPOSE OF 
IMPERIALISM. 

Dating from the events immediately preceding the 
surrender of Manila, all conditions changed, indicating 
unmistakably, changed instructions given from Wash- 
ington to the U. S. Commanders at Manila. 

Heretofore the Filipinos had been welcomed as 
allies, and they in turn had welcomed the United States 
forces as friends who were to aid them in achieving 
national independence. Even so late as May 4, 1898, 
the Singapore Free Press published an article given 
below, which was inclosed in a letter of Consul General 
Pratt, to Asst. Sec'y, of State, Day. 

The article from the Singapore Free Press reads thus : 

" General Aguinaldo's policy embraces the in- 
dependence of the Philippines whose internal 
affairs would be controlled under European and 
American advices. American protection would 
be desirable temporarily, on the same lines as that 
which might be instituted hereafter in Cuba." — 
See Senate Document 62, pages 343-344. 

In his letter dated Singapore, May 20th, 1898, 
Consul General Pratt to Asst. Sec'y Day, Pratt enclosed 



8 



a copy of the manifesto of the Filipinos in Hongkong 
to their Countrymen in Luzon which begins as follows: 

" Compatriots, — Divine Providence is about to 
place independence within our reach, and in a 
way the most free and independent could hardly 
wish for. The Americans, not from mercenary 
motives, but for the sake of humanity, and the 
lamentations of so many persecuted people, have 
considered it opportune to extend their protecting 
mantle to our beloved country, now that they 
have been obliged to sever relations with Spain, 
etc.'' — See Senate Document 62, page 345. 

Just when the administration reached its final 
determination to adopt the imperialist policy, with its 
purpose of colonial possessions cannot be stated with 
exactness and certainty. This policy included the 
subjugation and " forcible annexation" of the Philip- 
pine islands. 

The administration seems to have obtained in the 
final adjustment with Spain, something more than the 
cession of the Philippines and Porto Rico, Spanish 
Colonial possessions. Perhaps by secret article of 
treaty, perhaps only by mere understanding between 
our President and the Spanish diplomats, it came into 
possession of that characteristic duplicity, double deal- 
ing and treachery which have heretofore been con- 
sidered exclusively Spanish methods. Whatever be 
the explanation, it is an historical fact that it has been 
the evident purpose of the Administration to withhold 
information from the public, but in the pages of Senate 
Document 62, and in the reports of General Otis, may 
be found these facts, which interpreted by the search- 
ing inquiries of U. S. Senators Hoar, Pettigrew and 

9 



others, aided by the few independent papers of the 
country, and the explanations of the record, by the 
search lights of Schurz, Atkinson, Boutwell, Hoar and 
others, tell the infamous story of our Philippine war of 
conquest. 

These are the more important features of the story. 
We first welcomed the Filipinos as allies, and by their 
aid we wrested the Philippines from Spain. During 
the months preceding the surrender of Manila, or from 
January to July 25th, 1898, no intimation was given to 
the Filipinos that they would be denied by us the 
independence we had promised Cuba. 

In the action of our naval and military authorities 
at the surrender of Manila, July 25th, 1898, by which 
the Filipinos were studiously excluded from any share 
of the honor, was given the first direct intimation of 
the final treachery of the Administration to the Fili- 
pinos. Nevertheless with infinite patience the Filipinos 
awaited our final action, until on the 21st of December, 
1898, President McKinley issued the famous (and in- 
famous) proclamation censored and amended by Gen- 
eral Otis, which gave the first formal notice to the 
Filipinos of the purpose of the United States to claim 
and enforce soverereignty over them. Still the Fili- 
pinos with infinite and sublime patience awaited actual 
attack. 

Our national administration meanwhile refused 
these eight millions people over whom it was its pur- 
pose to claim sovereignty, a hearing at Washington, or 
a hearing before that convention, the Peace Commis- 
sion, which was to determine their future. 

Our administration, which had welcomed them as 



10 



allies, now cast them aside as so many slaves to be 
purchased, who must await in silence and without pro- 
test the will of their Spanish and their American 
masters. 

The story after the capture of Manila is briefly this. 
By request of General Otis enforced by threats, the 
Filipinos on the 13th of September, 1898, withdrew from 
the city of Manila, and from its suburbs and defenses, 
to the capture of which they had bravely and ably 
contributed. In February, 1899, actual hostilities be- 
gan by the action of a Nebraska soldier firing upon a 
Filipino patrol (not a hostile body of soldiers, but a 
mere guard, picking up stragglers). An engagement 
followed, of which General Otis writes thus : 

"The battle at Manila commenced at half past 
eight o'clock on the evening of February 4th and 
continued until five o'clock the next evening. The 
engagement was strictly defensive on the part of 
the iiisurgents, and one of vigorous attack by our 
forces." 

Notice the italicized words which show that the 
fighting was entirely of our seeking.. This confirms a 
well authenticated report of a fact which General Otis 
does not state, namely : That after the fighting began, _ 
General Aguinaldo sent to General Otis deprecating 
further hostilities, — stating that the fighting had begun 
accidentally, — and requested that a suitable neutral 
zone should be mutually established along lines agree- 
able to General Otis, which would prevent any like 
accident again precipitating hostilities. To this Gen- 
eral Otis is reported to have answered, that the fighting 
had begun and it must go on. 

11 



A WAR NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN PARTY SUPREMACY. 

This war of "criminal aggression " has gone on. 
Part of its motive has doubtless been the exigencies of 
the political party which the administration represents. 
This opinion has strong confirmation in the letters of 
Mr. Collins, representing the Associated Press in 
Manila, and whose dispatches were so censored by Gen- 
eral Otis, that as vehicles of news of what was transpir- 
ing in the Philippines, they have no value. Mr. Collins 
protested against this censorship and the suppression 
of news, and reports as to his interview with General 
Otis as follows : 

i( But when General Otis came down in the frank 
admission that it was not so much to prevent the 
newspapers from giving information and assist- 
ance to the enemy, (the legitimate function, and 
according to our view, the only legitimate one of 
a censorship), but to keep the knowledge of con- 
ditions here from the public at home, and when 
the censor had repeatedly told us in ruling out 
plain statements of undisputed facts, ' My instruc- 
tions are to let nothing go that can hurt the administra- 
tion' we concluded that protest was justifiable. " 

In the same letter Mr. Collins continues : 

" Recently I filed what I considered a most inof- 
fensive statement that the business men who had 
appeared before the Commission had advocated 
the retention of the existing silver system of cur- 
rency. The censor said : 1 1 ought not to let that go. 
That would be a lift for Bryan. My instructions are to 
shut off everything that could hurt McKinlefs admin- 
istratioti. That is free silver."' 

Read the italicized passage and note the dishonest 

12 



methods of the administration, which it has either 
inherited from the Spaniards, or possesses naturally. 

This war of "criminal aggression " has been marked 
from its beginning, by the usual steadiness and devo- 
tion to duty of the American soldier. He has had 
every advantage of discipline, equipment, and supplies, 
and has been pitted against a poorly armed and only 
slightly disciplined enemy. 

The climate is however against the invading army, 
and the Filipinos, defeated in all important engage- 
ments, are nevertheless in the early months of 1900, 
still in scattered hostile bodies continuing the war, and 
compelling the hated invaders to keep a force of seventy 
thousand soldiers in the Philippines. 

This hostile attitude of those whom President Mc- 
Kinley is making the subject of his policy of " benevo- 
lent assimilation " which as a price of their independ- 
ence is indignantly spurned by the brave brown men 
whom we are subjugating, indicates the magnitude of 
the task before us. 

It has already cost us a great expenditure of life 
of our soldiers, by casualties of war, and the deadly 
climate with which we are contending, and this loss of 
life is and will be continuous. It is interesting and in- 
structive to read General Otis's requisition for one 
thousand leg shackles for our soldiers made insane by 
the peculiar conditions of this useless, indefensible, in- 
famous war. 

The enormous expenditure in treasure also neces- 
sarily will continue, — and not one single life need have 
been sacrificed, — nor any considerable expenditure of 
treasure made, later than our occupation of Manila, if 

13 



our nation had had at its head a President whose 
statemanship was of the school of Washington, Jeffer- 
son and Lincoln, rather than of Mark Hanna, Denby, 
Roosevelt and Beveridge. 

Meanwhile, that the reader may have one glimpse 
of the heroic men we are subjugating, and of the end- 
less duration of our infamous task in this war of 
" Criminal Aggression," read of the heroic death of one 
of the many thousands Filipinos who have laid down 
their lives for national independence, — giving their 
lives for their country, — their souls to God, their 
memories to undying fame. 

THE DEATH OF GREGORIO DEL PILAR. 

Extracts from a letter written by Richard Henry 
Little, special correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, 
dated Manila, December 18, 1899, and published in the 
Chicago Tribune of February 4, 1900. 

It was a great fight that was fought away up on the 
trail of lonely Tilad pass on that Saturday morning of 
December 2. It brought glory to Major Marsh's bat- 
talion of the Thirty-third Volunteer Infantry, who were 
the victors. It brought no discredit to the little band of 
sixty Filipinos who fought and died there. Sixty was 
the number that at Aguinaldo's orders had come down 
into the pass that morning to arrest the onward march 
of the Americans. Seven were all that went back over 
the pass that night to tell Aguinaldo they had tried 
and failed. Fifty-two of them were either killed or 
wounded. And among them, the last to retreat, we 
found the body of young General Gregorio del Pilar. 
We had seen him cheering his men in the fight. One 

14 



of our companies crouched up close under the side of 
the cliff where he had built his first intrenchment, 
heard his voice continually during the fight urging his 
men to greater effort, scolding them, praising them, 
cursing them, appealing one moment to their love of 
their native land and the next instant threatening to 
kill them himself, if they did not stand firm. Driven 
from the first intrenchment he fell slowly back to the 
second in full sight of our sharp-shooters and under a 
heavy fire. Not until every man around him in the sec- 
ond intrenchment was down, did he turn his white 
horse and ride slowly up the winding trail. Then 
we who were below saw an American squirm his way 
out to the top of a high flat rock, and take deliberate 
aim at the figure on the white horse. We held our 
breath, not knowing whether to pray that the sharp- 
shooter would shoot straight or miss. Then came the 
spiteful crack of the Krag rifle and the man on horse- 
back rolled to the ground, and when the troops charg- 
ing up the mountain side reached him, the boy general 
of the Filipinos was dead. 

We went on up the mountain side. After H com- 
pany had driven the insurgents out of their second posi- 
tion and killed Pilar, the other companies had rushed 
straight up the trail, and never stopped until they were 
far up above the clouds and there was no longer an 
insurgent in sight. As we went up the trail we passed 
dead Filipino soldiers. We counted ten in all. Some 
had been shot several times. We found bloody trails that 
led to places on the edge of the cliffs, where wounded 
men had either jumped or fallen off. We passed the 
second intrenchment high up on the trail. It was built 

15 



of heavy rocks well banked with earth. Just past this 
a few hundred yards we saw a solitary body lying in the 
road. The body was almost stripped of clothing, and 
there were no marks of rank left on the bloodsoaked 
coat. But the face of the dead man had a look I had 
never noticed on the face of other dead men I had 
found in insurgent uniform on the field of battle, in the 
wake of an American firing line. The features were 
clear cut and forehead high and shapely. I decided 
the man must have been an insurgent officer. A sol- 
dier came running down the trail. 

" That's old Pilar," he said. " We got the old 
rascal. I guess he's sorry he ever went up against the 
Thirty-third." 

" There ain't no doubt about its being Pilar," rat- 
tled on the young soldier. " We got his diary, and 
his letters, and all his papers, and Sullivan of our com- 
pany's got his pants, and Snider's got his shoes, but 
he can't wear them because they're too small, and a 
sergeant in G company got one of his silver spurs, and 
a lieutenant got the other, and somebody swiped the 
cuff buttons before I got here or I would have swiped 
them, and all I got was a stud button and his collar 
with blood on it." 

So this was the end of Gregorio del Pilar. Only 
twenty-two years old, he managed to make himself a 
leader of men when he was hardly more than a boy, and 
at last had laid down his life for his convictions. 
Major Marsh had the diary. In it he had written under 
the date of December 2, the day he was killed : 

" The general has given me the pick of all the men 
that can be spared and ordered me to defend the pass. 

16 



I realize what a terrible task is given me. And yet I 
feel that this is the most glorious moment of my life. 
What I do is done for my beloved country. No sac- 
rifice can be too great." 

A private, sitting by the camp fire, was exhibiting 
a handkerchief. " It's old Pilars. It's got 4 Dolores 
Hosea 9 on the corner. I guess that was his girl. Well, 
it's all off with Gregorio." 

" Anyhow," said Private Sullivan, " I got his pants 
He won't need 'em any more." 

The man who had the general's shoes strode 
proudly past, refusing with scorn a Mexican dollar and 
a pair of shoes taken from one of the private insurgent 
soldiers. A private sitting on a rock was examining a 
golden locket containing a curl of a woman's hair. " Got 
the locket off his neck, said the soldier. - - - " 

As the main column started on its march for the 
summit of the mountain a turn in the trail brought us 
again in sight of the insurgent general far down below 
us. There had been no time to bury him. Not even 
a blanket or a poncho had been thrown over him. 

A crow sat on the dead man's feet. Another 

perched on his head. The fog settled down upon us. 

We could see the body no longer. 

We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone, 
But we left him alone in his glory. 

And when Private Sullivan went by in his trousers, 

and Snider with his shoes, and the other man who had 

the cuff buttons, and the sergeant who had the spur, 

and the lieutenant who had the other spur, and the 

man that had the handkerchief, and another man that 

had his shoulder straps, it suddenly occurred to me 

that his glory was about all we had left him. 

17 



A WAR WITHOUT HONOR. 

General Lawton and many others have died bravely 
in this war of " Criminal Aggression. " Alas that these 
brave men, our countrymen, should have been compel- 
led to give their lives needlessly — and in a war where 
all the honor which will be recalled by unsparing history, 
will attach to those whom our soldiers have slain. All 
that is here written of the story of our attempted con- 
quest of the Filipinos can be authenticated by reference 
to the official records in Washington. These two years 
of loss and shame are the record of what has been 
termed by Imperialists : 

A STRENUOUS NATIONAL LIFE. 

A well known representative of the Imperialist 
policy, using an ear-tickling phrase, has declared for a 
strenuous national life. This is the key note of the 
present administration, and thoughtful and patriotic 
voters should carefully mark the result of its practical 
workings. 

During the past two years we have humbled poor, 
crippled, dying Spain, and have wrested from her those 
revolted colonies which she was unable to govern, or 
to long retain. In our war with Spain the administra- 
tion had the general consent of the nation, for we be- 
gan it, with a solemn pledge to the world, that it 
should be a war for the liberation and independence of 
Cuba, and expressly disclaimed any purpose of terri- 
torial aggrandizement. 

During these two years we have trampled these 
pledges under our feet, and have by our treatment of 

18 



our Filipino allies made obsolete the old time phrase 
of Punic faith, and hereafter the world may well use 
American faith as the synonym of perfidy. We have 
forced the patriotic Filipinos, who at first welcomed us 
to their hearths and hearts as their liberators from 
Spanish tyranny, to fight us armed only with the right- 
eousness of their cause, and their sublime patriotism, 
for the independence, of which we seek to rob them. 

The sons of those who fought at Lexington and 
Bunker Hill, at Saratoga and Yorktown, and who 
tramped the frozen snow at Valley Forge with bare and 
bleeding feet, laying down their lives for our nationl 
independence, — have hunted the brave brown men of 
Luzon from their homes, slaying them inside the 
hearth-stones they defended with their lives, or chasing 
them relentlessly into the jungles. 

We have given to the Cubans, to the Porto Ricans, 
to the South American republics, reason to distrust, 
fear and hate us. All who love liberty for liberty's 
sake, who desire it " for all men and everywhere/ 1 are 
bowed in shame for us, despairing of our future, and of 
the future of liberty. 

In these two years of "strenuous life " we have 
outgrown and turned our backs upon Washington, Jef- 
ferson, Clay, Webster, and Lincoln ; we have involved 
the nation in entangling alliances with European pow- 
ers ; we have for the first time in our nation's history 
made it impossible to express national sympathy for a 
brave people, struggling with a courage never surpassed, 
against an overwhelming power, which now unblush- 
ingly and unchallenged demands a surrender by the 
Boers of their national independence ; and lastly as 

19 



the final expression of these two years of "strenuous 
national life," comes the assertion from President Mc- 
Kinley that our nation's constitution does not follow 
our nation's flag. 

It must be that the voter who reads these words 
will pause and ask, — Is this fatal turning away from our 
national traditions, final and irremediable? Happily it 
is not yet final, nor will be until the nation shall in 
1900 determine its verdict upon those questions and 
policies which have arisen since 1896. We can yet say 
to the Filipinos, you shall have restored and guaranteed 
to you that national independence, of which we have 
attempted to rob you ; we can say to Cuba and to 
Porto Rico, all that has been promised or implied to 
your people, shall be fulfilled, faithfully, liberally, 
largely, in its letter and in its spirit. 

This course will enable us to cut loose from all 
entangling European alliances ; will liberate the na- 
tional conscience and unseal its fettered speech. This 
course will restore its lost honor and faith to our na- 
tion, and assure the renewed respect of our sister 
republics. This course alone will restore that " govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, for the people," 
which has been usurped by syndicates and trusts ; a 
government foreign to our traditions, fatal to our 
liberties, and when understood, hateful to our people, 
and which can be made permanent only by constantly 
augmented standing armies. 

Which shall it be, Empire or Republic? Shall we 
follow Abraham Lincoln or Mark Hanna? 

Shall we adhere to Republicanism, as voiced by 
Sherman, Boutwell, Schurz, Edmunds, Hoar, Hender- 

20 



son, and a host of others, who stood by Lincoln's side 
while he was still with us, as his trusted friends and 
advisers, or shall we follow McKinley, Quay, Piatt, 
Roosevelt, and learn from these that our constitution, 
and the liberties and rights of citizenship, of which we 
have boasted during all the years of our national life ; for 
which our fathers gave their fortunes and their lives in 
1776; for which our fathers and our brothers offered 
their lives on so many bloody battle fields in our civil 
war ; for which our brothers and our sons rushed to 
arms heeding the cry of enslaved Cuba in 1898, no 
longer follows the flag ? 

We cannot too often read those often-quoted words 
of Lincoln, spoken at the dedication of the national 
cemetery at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863 : 

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the 
great task remaining before us, — that from these 
honored dead we take increased devotion to that 
cause for which they gave the last full measure of 
devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these 
dead shall not have died in vain ; that this nation 
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom ; and 
that government of the people, by the people, for 
the people, shall not perish from the earth. " 

Read and study the meaning of these words of 
President David Starr Jordan, of the Leland Stanford 
University of California, from an address delivered at 
Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 5, 1900. 

THE FOUR TYRANNIES OF HUMAN POLITICS. 

"The only war in which any race as a whole has 
been improved has been through the preservation 



21 



of its best and the loss of its worst examples, and 
democracy is the condition which favors this. The 
only race degeneration ever known is that pro- 
duced by one or all of democracy's arch enemies, — 
slavery, aristocracy, militarism, imperialism, the 
four tyrannies of human politics, not one of which 
appears without the other. The effect of these 
forces is to destroy the best, leaving for the fathers 
of the future those which armies and power could 
not use for its purposes. The fate of France has 
followed each war for empire. The war-like na- 
tion of to-day is the decayed nation of to-morrow. 
The statement that war is essential to the life of a 
nation, — that it strengthens a nation morally, 
financially and physically, — is the result of sheer 
ignorance, and one cannot respect the honesty and 
the intelligence of the man who makes it. War 
can only waste and corrupt. The motto of modern 
imperialism is: * Never bully a big boy or turn 
one's back on a little one.'" 

Read also this extract from the address of Gen. 
Carl Schurz, at Philadelphia, on the anniversary of 
Washington's birthday, February 22, 1900 : 



THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE. 



" I entreat you soberly to contemplate the alter- 
native now before us. If we permit the great wrong 
attempted by the administration to- be consum- 
mated, our moral credit with the world will be 
gone forever. Having started in our Spanish war 
with the solemn proclamation that this would be a 
war of liberation and not of conquest, and then 
having turned that war into one of landgrabbing 
and self-confessed 'Criminal Aggression,' nobody 
will ever again believe in any profession of virtue 
or generosity we may put forth. It will be hooted 



22 



down the world over as sheer hypocrisy disguising 
greedy schemes. We shall be guilty of the mean- 
est as well as, in its consequences, the most danger- 
ous iniquity a nation can commit — the betrayal of 
an ally. There is nothing so perfidious that thence- 
forth we shall not be thought capable of, and other 
nations will prudently take care not to make com- 
mon cause with us for anything upon a mere as- 
surance of good faith on our part. This is the 
'glory' we shall have won. Our sister republics 
in this hemisphere have looked upon the United 
States as their natural protector, and they were 
our natural friends. Since we have dishonored 
our professions of disinterested motive, they will 
always suspect us of a design to stretch out our 
rapacious hands also against them. Already they 
speak of this republic no longer as their strong 
and trusted friend, but as the'peligro del Norte' 
the 'danger in the north.' And they will do this 
so long as we hold any of our conquests. In con- 
stant fear of our greed and perfidy, they will, in 
case of critical complications, be inclined to 
coalesce even with old-world powers against us, 
and we shall have secret or open enemies instead 
of trustful friends, at our very doors. We shall 
have the Philippines with a population bitterly 
hating us, and, in case of trouble with some foreign 
power, eager to kindle a fire in our rear. We shall, 
instead of enjoying the inestimable blessing of ex- 
emption from the burdens of militarism, be obliged 
to keep up large and costly armaments to hold 
down our discontented subjects and to provide for 
our own security. And more ; we shall have a bad 
conscience. We shall have betrayed the funda- 
mental principles of our democracy, robbed the 
American people of their high ideals and beliefs, 
and thus destroyed the conservative element with- 
out which a democracy based on universal suffrage 
cannot long endure. 

23 



u And all this to gain some commercial advantage 
and naval facilities which we might have had just as 
fully, and much more securely, had we kept good faith 
with ourselves, with our allies, and with the world. 

" Now contemplate the other side of the alterna- 
tive. If the American people, even after the 
monstrous aberrations of their government, re- 
pudiate the policy of criminal aggression and 
renounce their conquests ; if they declare that 
their profession of unselfish motive and generous 
purpose in the Spanish war was sincere, and must 
be maintained at any cost — what then? They will 
forever put to shame the detractors of the Ameri- 
can democracy. They will show that, although 
the powers of their government may some time be 
put to base uses by men of misguided ambition, 
the American people are honest and can be counted 
upon to resist even the strongest temptations, the 
intoxication of victory, and to submit even to the 
mortifying ordeal of a confession of wrong done in 
their name, in order that right, justice and liberty 
may prevail. Such an attitude will secure to the 
American people the confidence of mankind as it 
has never been enjoyed by any nation in the 
world's history, and with it the fruits of that con- 
fidence. Our democratic institutions will issue 
from the trial with a luster they never had before. 
By so splendid a proof of good faith this republic 
will achieve a position of unexampled moral 
grandeur and influence. It will naturally become 
the trusted umpire between contending states, a 
peaceable arbiter of the world's quarrels. It will 
not only be a great world power by its strength 
but the greatest of all existing world powers by 
its moral prestige." 

That the reader may the more plainly understand 
departure of President McKinley and his administra- 



24 



tion from republican traditions and policies, read and 
carefully study these three quotations which follow: 

<( Human rights and constitutional privileges, 
must not be forgotten in the race for wealth and 
commercial supremacy. The government by the 
people, must be by the people, and not by a few of 
the people. It must rest upon the free consent of 
the governed, and of all the governed. Power, it 
must be remembered, which is secured by oppression, 
or usurpation, or by any form of injustice is soon de- 
throned'' — Wm. McKinley at New England dinner 
in New York City, in 1890. 

"I speak not of forcible annexation, for that 
cannot be thought of. That by our code of morals 
would be criminal aggression." — From Message of 
President McKinley to Congress, April 11, 1898. 

Both the foregoing utterances of McKinley, are 
born of Lincoln Republicanism, but are not in keeping 
with that which follows, nor in keeping with the infamy 
of our conquest of the Philippines. 

While the Filipinos were being slain in their homes 
or hunted from them by the United States soldiers, sent 
by President McKinley to subjugate our allies — the 
President assured them of his kind purposes as follows: 

"That Congress will provide for them (the Fili- 
pinos), a government which will bring them bless- 
ings, which will promote their material interests, as 
well as advance their people in the paths of civil- 
ization and intelligence, I confidently believe." — 
President McKinley at Minneapolis, Oct. 12, 1899. 

What Abraham Lincoln said of these promises of 
kindness offered to a people or a race as the price of 
the surrender of their liberties may be read with profit, 



25 



" Those arguments that are made that the inferior 
race are to be treated with as much allowance as 
they are capable of enjoying; that as much is to 
be done for them as their condition will allow. 
What are these arguments ? They are the arguments 
that kings have made for enslaving the people in 
all ages of the world. You will note that all the 
arguments of kingcraft were always of this class. 
They always bestrode the necks of the people not 
that they wanted to do it, but because the people 

were better off for being ridden. Turn it every 

way you will, whether it comes from the mouth of 
a king as an excuse for enslaving the people of his 
country, or from the mouth of one race as a reason 
for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the 
same old serpent" — Lincoln's Complete Works, 
Vol. I., page 259. 

These two past years of national dishonor have 
verified the truth of the words of the poet and sage 
who wrote, "False is that war no poet sings." While 
no poet has found inspiration for jubilant song in our 
war upon our Filipino allies, — songs of protest, of 
national confession and humiliation have multiplied. 
One of these fitly closes this booklet, with its indict- 
ment of the three nations which in 1900 — stand in the 
eyes of the world as the instruments of greed, and ex- 
ponents of brute force. 

AMERICA AND LIBERTY. 

1. The Pilgrims, landing on these shores, 
With sinewy arms knocked in the doors 
Of destiny. They called to God — 
"Lord, break the tyrant's shameless rod, 
That freely we may worship Thee; 
For we were born to liberty! 



26 



The altars of our hearths we'll raise 
On this fair soil. To Thee the praise 
For freedom's silver-fringed morn, 
For blessings on the ripening corn; 
We love Thy sun, we breathe Thine air; 
Now let our freedom be Thy care!" 

2. Thus prayed the Puritans of yore, — 
The sea behind, the foe before, 

Nor prayed alone; but, gun in hand, 
Stood guard to hold their promised land, 
And held it, — Freedom's first bequest 
To Nature's noblest man. The West 
Stretched gloomily its wastes and wilds 
For thousand upon thousand miles. 
To conquer these required a man 
Of courage, like the Puritan. 
He had the will, he found the way; 
His soul was steel in frame of clay. 

3. Here freedom's corner-stone was laid; 
Its pillars rose, its walls were stayed; 
The temple's towering dome reflects 
The wisdom of those architects 

Who built for man ; nor questioned blood, 
Nor where his cradle once had stood. 
These men spoke out the fearless word 
That ne'er before on earth was heard 
In tones of strength and majesty: 
A people, in its own right free. 
Then trembled every kinglet's crown; 
From shivering hands fell sceptres down. 

4. More than a hundred years have passed 
Since freedom fought the tyrant last 

At Lexington and Bunker Hill ; 

A nation's heart and brain and will 

Have filled a page of history 

With conquests for humanity — 

A shining page — none brighter written 

By Greek or Roman, Gaul or Briton. 

And is that all ? No heroes more 

To guard our freedom's open door? 

And shall this century's sunset see 

The doom and death of liberty ? 

5. Within a triangle of wrong 

The weak go down before the strong: 



27 



Its base from Finland to Transvaal 
Binds northern hut to southern kraal. 
Its fides are laid across our land, 
Across the graves of freedom's band, 
And meet where Filipinos die 
For home and liberty; — but why 
Are we the instruments to link 
The chains beneath which nations sink? 
Just God! Why must the Eagle share 
The greed of Lion and of Bear ? 

6. Three thousand miles from sea to sea! 
Suffice they not for you and me 

To grow between ? Must we expand 
Five thousand more? At whose command? 
Gold-hungry Greed, cries, More, still More! 
Her hands are red with human gore 
And blood drips from her garment's hem. 
Is Hague forgot? Is Bethlehem? 
She strikes, — a nation bites the dust. 
Did God command her that she must? 
What would the Puritans have said? 
But they are dead! Yes, they are dead. 

7. Who said "Haul down our flag"? No man 
Whose warm blood is American. 

Let freedom's noblest symbol rise 
With growing splendor to the skies? 
And let it be, where-e'er unfurled, 
The flag of hope to all the world ! 
What! Did you say it waves o'er lands 
Where man in arms as conqueror stands? 
Our flag oppression's lurid rag? 
'Tis not OUR flag! 'Tis NOT our flag! 
Our flag must wave, where-e'er it be, 
For Justice, Right and Liberty ! 

8. And so again we pray to God: 
"Now break once more the tyrant's rod! 

And shouldst Thou find it in our hands, 
Oppressing man in foreign lands, 
Forgive, Lord, the wanton deed, 
And take away the accursed reed! 
We've wrongs to right among ourselves, 
For him who daily toils and delves. 
Give to us courage, will and light, 



28 



To make our own land free and bright! 
Once more shall coming nations see 
In us their hope of Liberty." 

Prof. Wilhblm Pettersen, 

Minneapolis, Minn. 

Readers who have become interested in the charac- 
ter and condition of this interesting people, who, in 
the words of the Philippine Commission (see pages 4 
to 6 inclusive) "possess admirable personal and domes- 
tic virtues," a "high range of intelligence, ,, and many 
of whom are "the equals of the men one meets in simi- 
lar vocations (law, medicine, business, etc.,) in Europe 
or America," and whom in the interests of Christianity 
and the "greater Americanism ,, President McKinley 
proposes to "benevolently assimilate," so long as a 
single Filipino remains alive, will look with interest up- 
on the following picture of a scene in the Philippines, 
as viewed and depicted by an observer, who, while 
serving with his regiment in the Philippines, had 
exceptional advantages as the official interpreter em- 
ployed by General Lawton and others in command, in 
their intercourse with the natives. 

Extract from a letter from Martin E. Tew, a mem- 
ber of the 13th Minnesota, and correspondent of the 
Minneapolis Times, dated Maasin, Luzon Island, May 
10, 1899, and referring to engagements of April 22nd: 

"Every inhabitant had left Norzagaray, and no 
article of value remained behind. The place had 
probably been the home of 1500 or 2000 people, 
and was pleasantly situated on a clear mountain 
stream in which a bath was most refreshing. It 
was not a city of apparent wealth, but in many 
houses were found evidences of education. In a 



29 



building which probably had been used as a school- 
house were found a number of books, and a 
variety of exercises written by childish hands. 
Pinned to a crucifix was a paper upon which was 
written the following in Spanish : 

1 American Soldiers : How can you hope mercy from Him 
when you are slaughtering a people fighting for their liberty, 
and driving us from the homes which are justly ours?* 

On a table was a large globe which did not give 
Minneapolis, but had San Pablo (St. Paul) as the 
Capitol of Minnesota. On a rude blackboard 
were a number of sentences, which indicated that 
the teacher had recently been giving lessons in 
the history of the American revolution." — From 
Minneapolis Times of June 77, i8qq. 

Citizens to whom this booklet appeals with its sug- 
gestions of the duty of independent citizenship, will 
approve its closing words spoken by Abraham Lincoln, 
in 1858, in a like crisis of our nation's life. 

" To give the victory to the right, not bloody 
bullets, but peaceful ballots only are necessary. 
Thanks to our good old constitution, and organiza- 
tions under it, these alone are necessary. It only 
needs that every thinking man should go to the 
polls and without fear and prejudice vote as he 
thinks/' — Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, 
Vol. L, p. 427, 



30 



This booklet is published and distributed by 
The Lincoln Rebublican League. 

All persons desiring to learn the views of those 
well-known Lincoln Republicans — Senator Hoar, Ex. 
Gov. Boutwell, Gen. Carl Schurz, Ex. Senator Hen- 
derson, and others — can have full supplies of Anti- 
Imperialist literature mailed to them, by applying by 
postal card or by letter to either of the following ad- 
dresses : — 

W. J. Mize, 164 Dearborn St., Chicago, 111. 
Erving Winslow, 44 Kilby St., Boston, Mass. 
F. G. Corser, N. Y. Life Bld'g, Minneapolis, Minn. 

All inquiries relating to Lincoln Republican 
Booklets should be addressed to 

ELWOOD S. CORSER, 

Minneapolis, Minn. 



c -1 



